Thursday, 5 May 2011

Don't(s)

Don't stand there...

and don't use the word eccentric.

Here’s a word I loathe – eccentric. Eccentric is a word that boring people use to describe someone I think of as interesting. A great many people think of me as eccentric simply because when I have my shoes polished, I have the entire shoe polished – top, sides and soles. Some people think it eccentric that every morning I have my maid iron my money. When I told Truman I had my maid iron my money, you know what he said? Here’s what he didn’t say – ‘How eccentric.’ Here’s what he did say – ‘How wonderful.’ You can forgive a person a lot who really enjoys you. - Diana Vreeland (played by Juliet Stevenson) character in Infamous (2006)

There is a wonderful passage in André Leon Talley's book about visiting DV. He is sitting there and crosses his legs and DV sees the soles of his shoes which are OMG Not Polished. She takes him to task for such a poor appearance. I loved it.